Thursday, August 20, 2009

In the first Bledisloe Cup match of 1996, that then fell under the newly formed era of professionalism, and the inaugral Tri Nations, it was the All Blacks that dominated in a game of high skill considering the conditions.

They had 11 members of their World Cup Final side from the previous year, including Andrew Mehrtens who was on his way to notching up the fastest 200 points in Test history.

They also had a young fullback by the name of Christian Cullen, who was just 20 at the time, and playing only his fourth Test, but his first against Australia.

David Campese on the other hand, was on the wing for the Wallabies, with 96 Test caps as he head towards reaching the milestone of 100.

Wellington's Athletic Park was wet and windy on the day, but the All Blacks came out firing as they took the Wallabies by surprise with their tactic of running the ball with such a wet field underfoot.

They dominated with a six try thumping of the Aussies, winning the match 43-6, retaining the Bledisloe Cup then going on to win that years Tri Nations.

The all Black team of 1996 was awesome. One of the best ever. In fact if you were going to pick the best players at their respective positions in 1996 in world rugby....I think it would have been 15 All Blacks.

Maybe Joost VDW might have got in for Marshall at 9 and Stransky at 10 for Mehrtens?

Absolute legends. After a while you sort of forget all the great players until you see clips like this. I was watching the clip and enjoying watching Jones and Brooke and then up pops Kronfeld, - jesus H - does it get any better.

Brooke- laid down the blueprint for the modern back row, best player of his day IMO my absolute idol (and i'm a 9) But listen to the commentary

"Brooke, Marshall, Merhtons, Lomu, Cullen" 5 standout legends in possibly the best team to ever step out on a pitch (when compared to the opponents quality at the time)

Looking at this tho you do yearn somewhat for the days before professionalism. When attacking skill outweighed physical and defensive prowess.

I love some of the things the pro era has brought about but if you compare this to say last weeks bledislow cup, having massive, expertly conditioned and "grown" players doesn't equal great rugby. I miss moves that were born of knowing missed tackles would happen, and players not fearing injury from a tackle from 6 foot 6 forward men who can run 100m in under 11.3 seconds. Even saying that makes you just want to boot the thing out of hand rather then take a chance.